BELGRADE, 22 June 2015– The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić today appointed Ambassador Martin Sajdik (Austria) as his new Special Representative in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group. He follows Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini (Switzerland) who, having fulfilled this assignment for one year, expressed her wish to step down.

“Ambassador Sajdik is a very experienced diplomat with a broad scope of knowledge, ranging from international law to multilateral affairs, and we are very glad to welcome him to the team,” Dačić said. “Let me also thank Ambassador Tagliavini for her outstanding performance and the contribution to the diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis in and around Ukraine, which has proven to be invaluable. Well-respected by all for her diplomatic skills and commitment, she will be sorely missed. It was my pleasure to work with her and I wish her all the best in her future engagements”.

Ambassador Tagliavini was appointed Special Representative in Ukraine on 8 June 2014 by the then OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter. Her mandate was renewed in January 2015 by the incumbent OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić.

During her tenure as Special Representative, Ambassador Tagliavini significantly contributed to the elaboration, signing and implementing of the Minsk Agreements of September 2014 and the Minsk Package of Measures of February 2015, as well as to defusing tensions and the scaling-down of armed hostilities in the conflict area. Following the Package of Measures, she also helped set-up thematic working groups to speed-up the implementation of all pending security, political, humanitarian and economic issues.